The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young

Synopsis

In its first 25 years only 10 people have finished The Barkley Marathons. Based on a historic prison escape, this cult like race tempts people from around the world to test their limits of physical and mental endurance in this documentary that contemplates the value of pain.

This is not exactly the most technically proficient documentary, but its topic and subjects are very interesting, and as a whole I found the film to be quite fascinating. Basically, this is about a race that goes for 130 miles, over 60 hours, and was inspired by a prison break. It is designed for elite long distance runners, those who have been extremely successful in the past, to fail. It's extremely grass roots and niche, which makes it an interesting topic to document. The people that do this race go through hell, so of course there is a bit of a Jackass reason to watch this, though all you really see is their beat up legs (which is gnarly). Another reason to watch this is to see how far human will and endurance can take you, and to realize how lazy you are.

This is a topic that I don't think warrants a 90 minute documentary. This probably could've been a perfectly fine 40 minute mini doc or whatever, but it decides to stretch this out to feature length. Overall, it's semi-interesting. It never maintains any solid interest throughout the whole thing, but there were moments where I enjoyed watching it. And by the end, I was curious as to see who would win the race, even though that's not what the film sets itself up to be about. Meh.

The quality of the editing during this documentary about what I suppose could be considered the most ultra of ultramarathons is a bit spotty. The interviews with “Lazarus”—one of the races founders—have noticeable visual hiccups that betray that the interview was cut that I think could have been handled better. Those same interviews seem to have redundant information at times as well.

That said, despite that this was one of the most riveting documentaries I’ve ever seen. The characters and personalities are great, and I enjoyed “meeting” them over this brisk 90 minutes giver or take.